A handful of musicians, promoters and fans are all a part of a vibrant — if somewhat exclusive — music scene that operates out of warehouses, basements, garages and even living rooms. These do-it-yourself, or DIY, venues have become a showcase of sorts for local bands and smaller touring acts.

And they can be a hell of a lot of fun.

A rock concert in your living room

The first rule of Robot House is: you do not talk about Robot House. At least, that’s how its proprietor, Phil Castiglione, would prefer it.

It’s easy to see why. His small one-bedroom apartment feels crowded with eight people, let alone 30. But that’s how many people he can pack in to listen to live bands rock out in his living room.

When Castiglione first moved to Ottawa about a decade ago, it was hard for him to book a gig for his band, Robots Everywhere. That’s really how the DIY scene was born: out of necessity. While it can be risky for a bar with a 200-person capacity to book a lesser-known band, you can fill a basement rather quickly. But as Ottawa’s music scene has grown, more and more “official” venues have opened up and opened their doors to under-the-radar musicians, Castiglione says. DIY shows are no longer a band’s only option, but they’re still a good one.

Castiglione says it’s surprisingly easy to put on a show, and a great way to support local musicians.

“It’s something that I think more people should consider doing,” he says from his small kitchen.

His biggest concern is making nice with his upstairs neighbours, and he’s instituted a “no foot stomping rule” to ensure their nights aren’t too disturbed. He also ends his parties promptly at 11 p.m., in order to avoid a bylaw infraction.

He’s never even had a ticket, but there was one night (that he doesn’t like to mention) when the music went on a bit too late.

Maybe the police officer was a music fan, or maybe he just didn’t want to break up a group of revellers. But for whatever the reason, he allowed them to play two more songs

For his part, Castiglione dutifully gave everyone warning that the night was ending soon, and hustled everyone out immediately after the two-song set. If you want to see Castiglione and The Steamers perform, check this out:

Join the party

Kurt Rafuse turns his Centretown basement into a music venue – quite often packing the house with bands and fans.Julie Oliver

For some, having a rock show for 70 people in your home is the very definition of a bad idea. But for Kurt Rafuse, who runs a DIY venue from his basement in Centretown, it’s just another weekend.

Rafuse’s home isn’t fancy, but it has its charm. A brick duplex with worn wooden floors, a foosball table, old couch and temperamental record player liven up the living room. The basement runs the length of the building, and its low ceiling has exposed floor beams. It would be the perfect place to film a low-budget horror movie, but instead Rafuse has turned it into a place to jam, dance and mosh.

“It’s probably not for the love of organizing the show itself but because I play music myself and I know how much I appreciate it when people have helped me out,” Rafuse says.

Rafuse was introduced to the DIY concept while he was still in university, playing music at friends’ parties. At 29, he’s still a musician, and appreciates playing house shows while on tour with his bands, the Yips, who will play Arboretum Fest in August, and the Tropical Drips.

The Yips music video for their song PGLM was shot in Rafuse’s basement. To see it click:

Throwing his own DIY shows from his rented apartment’s basement is his way of saying thank you to his fellow musicians.

“It’s kind of a quid-pro-quo situation,” he says.

He typically charges $5 at the door, and never takes a cut from the cover. On a good night, a band can make about $100-$200, which he says is comparable to playing in bars.

One of the things that’s surprised Rafuse the most about putting on these shows is how many different kinds of people they can attract. Unlike bars, which are licensed, he can make his shows all-ages. He says he’s had kids as young as 17 show up, and they thank him for ending in time to make it home for curfew.

“I’ve been impressed with how open some of these kids are, that their parents are dropping them off and picking them up,” he says.

“When I was 17, I would definitely have been trying to be so cool.”

From the garage to the arcade

Paul Granger is the owner of the new arcade and live music venue, House of Targ on Bank Street.Julie Oliver

Although they still bear the piercings and tattoos of punk rockers, Paul Granger and Mark McHale are now a couple of respected business owners.

In April, they opened the House of Targ, a music venue and arcade, across from the Mayfair Theatre on Bank Street.

Granger, a music producer, used to run a rehearsal studio out of a 1500 square-foot garage at Main Street and Greenfield Avenue. He started hosting BBQs and jam sessions once a year, and that soon morphed into once-a-month music performances. His neighbour and fellow musician, Mark McHale, helped organize, and so House of Targ — the DIY music venue — was born.

“It was always very positive and a lot of really nice people, “ Granger says. “Different people from different communities were coming out, the gaming people, the punks, the indie rockers and the hipsters.”

Always aware that the unofficial garage venue could get shut down, Granger and McHale worked hard to keep the noise under control and be friends with their neighbours.

This make-nice approach seems to have served them well in family-friendly Old Ottawa South. Granger says one of the nice surprises of opening up shop is how welcome the community has been.

Although it’s 19-plus after 9 p.m., parents often take their kids to play the arcade games during the day.

“Obviously no one [with a family] would ever come to that old gitchy [sic] place,” Granger says with a smile.

While the music hall is now 100 per cent above board, it hasn’t lost its DIY spirit. After one of their first garage shows, McHale was surprised that about 30 people stayed behind to help clean up, put away recycling and take out the trash. Now one of those good Samaritans is the regular cleaner at the newly opened venue.

“We’ve taken something like that [the DIY ethic] and on purpose, legitimized it,” Granger says.

Hidden gems

Luke Martin runs Gabba Hey, a warehouse music venue.

If you didn’t know what you were looking for, it would be easy to completely miss Gabba Hey, one of Ottawa’s newest and hippest music venues.

Located on the second storey of City Centre, Gabba Hey looks like the kind of space you’d find in Brooklyn, not Ottawa.

He’s been floating around Ottawa’s punk scene for over a decade, and is one of the organizer’s of Ottawa Explosion, an annual punk music fest. In the old days, he used to host concerts out of a basement in a commercial building on Bank Street.

But when he found the place at City Centre, he knew he had found the perfect spot. By day, it’s a rehearsal space for local bands that need a quiet corner to get noisy. But on the weekends, it’s the perfect place to party. Stranded between a massive parking lot, the O-Train and bus transitway, you can be as loud as you want to be without annoying the neighbours. Like when the Steve Adamyk band performs at Gabba Hey. To get an idea:

“It’s nice to have a place that’s downtown, but still sort of mysterious,” Martin says.

It’s this mystery that lends Gabba Hey its unmistakable aura of cool. There’s no walking off the street and into a show, you have to know about the space to find it. In the pre-internet days, word got out simply by mouth or from posters put up on telephone polls and community boards. Now, most people hear about shows on Facebook.

You have to know the sites to visit, and the people to friend, in order to stay in the loop. But for those who are in-the-know, Ottawa offers a treasure trove of secret spaces to listen to live music.

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